In this episode of Adil Talks, host Syed Zurriyat Adil chats with Carly McMillen from PPC Farm. They dive into the nitty-gritty of selling on Amazon in 2025, moving past the surface-level talk of sales numbers to focus on what actually keeps a business alive: profit and brand protection.

Five Key Points

1: Profit is the North Star: Carly makes it clear that chasing revenue alone is a trap. You can have millions in sales, but if your profit is only a few thousand dollars after Amazon fees and advertising, you don’t really have a business. Every decision should be guided by your bottom line, not just top-line growth [18:56].

2: The “Amazon BS” Reality: Running an Amazon brand involves a lot of behind-the-scenes “BS”—listing suppressions, support nightmares, and logistics headaches. Carly mentions their agency actually has a dedicated “Amazon BS Department” just to handle the constant cases and support loops that can kill a brand’s momentum [12:17].

3: Inventory is Your Lifeblood: You can’t recover easily from going out of stock. Even a week of being dark can tank your organic rankings so badly that you have to spend thousands in ads just to get back to where you were. Supply chain management should be prioritized over almost everything else [16:47].

4: Building a “Moat” with Intellectual Property: The days of simple private labeling (slapping a logo on a generic Alibaba product) are fading. To survive against massive competition and price wars, you need unique product designs (IP) and a brand story that exists outside of just an Amazon search result [09:02].

5: Smart Competitor Tracking: Don’t just obsess over the #1 seller in your category. While they are a long-term goal, you need to track the competitors at your own level to see how they are moving and watch out for new “up-and-comers” who might be innovating with better images or features [23:44].

Final Takeaway

Amazon isn’t a “set it and forget it” side hustle anymore. To win today, you have to treat it like a serious corporate operation. That means knowing your numbers inside out, protecting your inventory at all costs, and building a brand that offers something unique enough that customers actually look for you, not just the cheapest price.

Podcast Transcript

[01:16] Adil: Hi Carly, how are you?

[01:19] Carly: Hi, I’m doing great! Thanks so much for having me, I’m excited to be here.

[01:22] Adil: Thank you for coming. How did you come up with the name PPC Farm?

[01:27] Carly: It’s funny, we sometimes get people asking if we can help with their actual agriculture. But it actually comes from the way we handle keyword discovery—we call it “farming” keywords and then “harvesting” them into performance campaigns.

[02:42] Carly: Regarding AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud), I think it’s a bit of a buzzword right now. It’s beneficial for high-level sellers, but for the majority, it might not be the top priority yet.

[04:12] Carly: I think the future is bringing outside traffic into Amazon. You need to build a “moat” around your brand because you can’t just compete on price anymore against foreign sellers.

[07:23] Carly: I started in Shopify helping a skincare company for 5 years, then moved to the parent company of PPC Farm. I did product development there, which helped me see the process from sourcing to logistics to marketing.

[09:02] Carly: We’ve been shifting away from simple private label brands. We’re going for more original IP (Intellectual Property) products. It takes more time and effort, but it’s the way to remain successful.

[10:37] Carly: Our parent company actually has thousands of SKUs and 12 different brands. We use PPC Farm as our own agency, so we experience exactly what our clients are going through with Amazon’s changes.

[12:17] Carly: We have an entire “Amazon BS Department” to deal with listing suppressions and support cases. It’s a red alert whenever a listing goes down because you lose so much momentum.

[14:11] Adil: I think if Amazon put even 1% more effort into their support education, it would benefit everyone. Right now, you get different answers from chat, phone, and email.

[15:41] Carly: Amazon is not messing around with Q4 deadlines. If they say October for inventory check-in, take it seriously or you’ll be out of luck for the holiday season.

[16:47] Carly: It is so hard to recover from being out of stock. We had a client out for two weeks, and we are still struggling to rank them back to where they were. It costs you in ads and lost revenue.

[18:49] Carly: For monitoring profitability, I think Sellerboard is great. Profitability should be the “North Star” for any seller. If you aren’t making money, the revenue doesn’t matter.

[20:00] Carly: Even with software, it’s hard to beat a regular old Excel or Google Sheet for customization. VLOOKUP formulas have probably saved more lives than anything else!

[21:45] Carly: New sellers shouldn’t expect this to be a passive, easy side hustle. You need to do your homework on fees and COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) before you even start.

[23:44] Carly: Pick your top five competitors to track. Some should be “future goals” (the big guys), but you must also track the people at your current level who are climbing the ranks with you.

[25:53] Adil: I had a client who ordered LED strips with a remote, but by the time they arrived, everyone was selling the phone-connected version. He had to liquidate everything at a loss.

[26:32] Carly: If anyone wants to connect, find me on LinkedIn as Carly McMillen or visit ppcfarm.com. We offer a 60-day free trial for new clients to see if we are a good fit.

[26:56] Adil: Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

[26:59] Carly: Thank you, have a good one!